Cook County recycles 1.14 million pounds of old paper

Cook County has recycled about 1.14 million pounds of old documents, reports and miscellaneous paperwork in the last 18 months, clearing out more than 71,000 feet of storage space and generating $200,000 in savings and $20,000 in revenue for the county, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said in a news release. Some of the documents dated to the 1960s and included old financial spreadsheets, dated legal journals, long-ago settled court cases, years-old dog bite incident reports, and expired bond transactions. "It became obvious that the county had a 'paper problem'," she said. All of the documents were eligible for destruction under local records statutes. The paper was sold for recycling.